SPRINGS OF INFLAMMABLE GAS. 



conveyed in pipes to the village, which is actually 

 lighted by them.* 



In the year 1828 a copious spring of inflam- 

 mable gas was discovered in Scotland, in the bed 

 of a rivulet which crosses the north road between 

 Glasgow and Edinburgh, a little to the east of 

 the seventh mile- stone from Glasgow, and only a 

 few hundred yards from the house of Bedlay. 

 The gas is said to issue for more than half a mile 

 along the banks of the rivulet. Dr. Thompson, 

 who has analysed the gas, saw it issuing only 

 within a space about fifty yards in length, and 

 about half as much in breadth. " The emission 

 of gas was visible in a good many places along 

 the declivity to the rivulet in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of a small farm-house. The farmer 

 had set the gas on fire in one place about a yard 

 square, out of which a great many small jets 

 were issuing. It had burnt without interruption 

 during five weeks, and the soil (which was clay) 

 had assumed the appearance of pounded brick all 

 around. 



" The flame was yellow and strong, and resem- 

 bled perfectly the appearance which carburetted 

 hydrogen gas or fire-damp presents when burnt 

 in daylight. But the greatest issue of gas was in 

 the rivulet itself, distant about twenty yards from 

 the place where the gas was burning. The 

 rivulet, when I visited the place, was swollen 

 and muddy, so as to prevent its bottom from 

 being seen. But the gas issued up through it in 

 one place with great violence, as if it had been 

 in a state of compression under the surface of 

 the earth ; and the thickness of the jet could not 

 * Edinburgh Journal of Science, No. xv., p. 183. 



